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Thayani Stillwood
=Physical Description= Thayani is shorter and slighter than average. That, combined with her sweet features and large blue eyes make her look rather younger than she is, even a teenager. Her face is well-suited to smiling, and she does it often. =Personality= In keeping with being a low-ranking priestess of the Light, Thayani always tries to be humble, helpful, and forthright, but in keeping with her past is often mired in self-doubt and frustration, in addition to guilt. She also has a temper and a stubborn streak. =History= The Stillwood family had lived quietly in the backwoods of Tirisfal for generations, farming, hunting, logging, supporting the kingdom and the Church in their own small ways. Thayani was raised in an environment of strong faith and obligation, and from a young age studied to be a priestess of the Light. Occasional doubts about her ability or faith were not dwelled on when she could help it. Her closest friends were a pair of twins from the city of Lordaeron, who had come with their parents to live in a quieter place for at least part of the year. Grisa and Peia Stedman, tomboys through and through, almost immediately became the protectors of the equally-adventurous but gentler Thayani, and the three were all but inseperable. They had planned their future - the twins would become warriors, fighting for King and country, while Thayani would be their support, healing their wounds and giving them strength. The Third War and the coming of the Scourge changed that. The plague and then the undead swept through Tirisfal like a tide, and Thayani saw friends, family, neighbors fall sick and die. By chance not infected herself, she saw how helpless priests and paladins were against the plague, how the Light could destroy the undead but not save the dying. The blow to her faith, her pride, her self-esteem was powerful. Some survived, including Grisa and Peia, now orphans, and Thayani's parents and older brother, Orson, and did everything they could to survive in their changed world. When a new organisation appeared, gathering warriors and support, the survivors of the village were only too happy to give what they could. So, Thayani's brother Orson, being of age, immediately joined the new-born Scarlet Crusade, the three girls began training under new teachers, and Thayani's parents became steadfast supporters, donating much of their harvest and other goods. It didn't take long for some to find the growing extremism of the group worrying, and gentle Thayani was one, though she kept her tongue as long as she could. Grisa and Peia, more practical than devout, felt the same, and before they could become full members of the Crusade, subject to more attention, they decided to leave. The Scourge, again, changed their plans. While out on their own Grisa and Peia contracted the plague. Realising it for what it was they returned only to tell Thayani and then vanished into the woods to one of their childhood hideouts. Thayani followed, luckily without arousing suspicion, and did what she could to save them - when that failed entirely, she did what she could to comfort them, and then buried them. She could not bring herself to harm their corpses and had too much sense to report what had happened, so she merely prayed they would not rise. When she next visited their graves, both were empty. That was, in effect, the final straw, and Thayani, now silently estranged from her family and fearing to remain with the Crusaders, ran. No one knew save her brother, who risked his own life letting her go - at least, letting her have a head start. Eventually she was missed, and a small group pursued her into the woods. Only her experience with the woods and her ability to hide in places seemingly too small for a human gave her any advantage, and she was able to keep away from them long enough for them to presume her lost, not worth the time of chasing down further when she could simply be cleansed when and if she reappeared. Thayani nearly did die in the woods of Tirisfal, but happened to cross the path of an adventuring arcanist, Abraham Voss. His kindness was enough to earn her trust, and she followed him all the way to Stormwind, where his family lived. After some time to heal and adjust, she joined it. The Voss family, while faithful to the Light, had learned to control darkness - they were warlocks. Having repudiated her own faith, Thayani decided to learn about fel magics, throwing herself into them with almost feverish intensity. While less ruthless than many, Thayani showed the strength of will that had kept her alive and reasonably sane thus far and mastered all the lessons given her, including the family law of never openly revealing what exactly they were to outsiders, when it could be avoided. She lived that way for years, silencing self-doubts as she always had, serving the Alliance and willing to fight the Scourge at any opportunity. The Crusade she avoided as long as she could, until set directly against them. Before she was, however, she made a discovery: Grisa and Peia, while risen undead, were not members of the Scourge. They were members of the Horde, warriors still and growing in power and reputation. Events had left her, with the help of her voidwalker, at least their equal, but it wasn't a fight they were looking for: they revealed they remembered her clearly and not only meant her no harm, but still cared for her - something that inspired very conflicting feelings in her - and that while they supported Warchief Thrall and his New Horde, they did not support any war or conflict with the Alliance save self-defense. Shaken, Thayani came away from the encounter with new doubts and questions and no idea how to answer them. Soon after she went up against the Crusade, tasked by her adoptive father to use her knowledge of them to help a party avoid combat for as long as possible while in their territory. She hadn't expected to find her brother while there, but once more luckier than she could have believed, she and her party encountered him outside of battle, and she was able to keep them from killing him until she could speak to him. Desperate to save at least one member of her family, she begged him to leave with her, and he accepted ... if they could save his infant son as well. The change to their plans endangered their original mission, but they narrowly succeeded, vanishing into the wilds as Thayani had years before. Orson's reaction to Thayani's choice of career went rather more poorly, and while they were able to make peace, of a sort, it was another blow, one that helped push her into looking at herself afresh and examining the choices she had made. Her adoptive sister Zhela Voss found a place where the distraught young woman could find outer if not inner peace, and friends, comrades, and family all did what they could to help, with varying degrees of success. In the end, Thayani vowed not to use fel magic anymore - she believed that some, such as her father and sister, truly could bend evil powers to good ends without corrupting themselves, but she recognised she did not have the kind of ruthless strength that required. That left her without a source of power, without means to protect herself and others, without even a hope of helping as she had always felt driven to help. In this almost total personal darkness, she found the Light. Unsure, conflicted, but not unwilling, she confided in paladins and priests she knew, at last remembering how natural and warm the Light had once been, when she hadn't been worrying about measuring up to family expectations or terrified of the perverse uses the Light could be put to by zealots. With the help of the priests in Stormwind and Northshire, she finally returned to the priesthood, still often wracked with self-doubt but trusting that with help she could find her way. Now, she spends much of her time in Stormwind, making short forays out on behalf of the Church or the (public) family business. More capable than she allows herself to believe, she is truly beginning to heal.